seeting up 40 PCs in a network

paininlife

paininlife

paininlife

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14 Jul 2009
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514
Location
Birmingham
hi guys, i just need some help, i need to connect around 40 PCs in a network, nothing too complex, all computers will be connected to the switch and swtich will be connected to the router. I got all the cables, network card..bla bla bla. Now what i have to do so that they can gain access to the internet? do i need a software for that or just some changes to assigning IPs? and another thing is about the firewall and web filtring, can i set it up with out having a server? or i have to do it on each pc seperatly? my focus is on
- File Sharing
- Networking
- Internet Sharing
- Parental Control
- Restrictions
- Security
 
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what router is it?
what is the budget?
what will the pcs be doing?
what loads are you placing on the network/pcs?
is this for a school / college or something?

Without thinking about it too much my reaction is to suggest pfsense for routing/firewall and some kind of linux box for file sharing and squid proxy for caching/restrictions etc. probably need some kind of directory as well for authentication. You could go AD or just have a simple LDAP server.
 
I dont want to be condascending, but if you have to ask, are you sure you're ready to take this on? 40 machines isnt a small network to build from scratch.

It's at the size where I wouldnt want to be using SBS (although no doubt someone will be around soon with the ludicruous suggestion of Windows Home Server). I'd probably build 3 servers, possibly by virtualising them if you dont have any server hardware already. A file server, a domain controller and an ISA server.

The file server will allow you to centrally store files and control permissions by NTFS, the domain controller can deal with DHCP and group policy for desktop restrictions and the ISA server can act as a proxy for internet access, allowing control over that
 
its a small school, PCs will be used by Students.
I dont have any special Server PCs in there. Can i use 3 of the normal PCs for this purpose? they are old P4 2.8ghz with 1 gb ram and 80 gb HDD each.
 
Education is an area where you want to be very careful - you need to have a good knowledge of group policy and ISA server in order to protect the infrastructure and the pupils.

No, dont use old PCs as servers.

You will get Academic pricing from Microsoft for the licenses, so you're looking at no more than a grand for all the software. Then a few k for some proper server systems
 
I thought there were filtering services for schools..?

Ask the LEA for advice, if the kids download porn YOU are in big trouble..

what situatiuon would you want to be in

1) Yes they did download beast porn, however I implimented the system as specified by the Local education authority

OR

2) Yes they did download beast porn, however I asked on some forum and took some advice from a dood with 300 posts because I thought it sounded right...

If the LEA say slap in any old crap we dont even know what the internet is you can buy internet filtering box's from some of the big well known software houses who do filtering software (like net nanny), they are expensive compared to a router but its what I would go for if I had to choose myself..

I would also white list sites I wanted them to access rather than black list...
 
edscdk said:
I thought there were filtering services for schools..?

Ask the LEA for advice, if the kids download porn YOU are in big trouble..

what situatiuon would you want to be in

1) Yes they did download beast porn, however I implimented the system as specified by the Local education authority

OR

2) Yes they did download beast porn, however I asked on some forum and took some advice from a dood with 300 posts because I thought it sounded right...

If the LEA say slap in any old crap we dont even know what the internet is you can buy internet filtering box's from some of the big well known software houses who do filtering software (like net nanny), they are expensive compared to a router but its what I would go for if I had to choose myself..

I would also white list sites I wanted them to access rather than black list...
Click to expand...

From past experiance (used to work in a school env 2yrs ago) LEA's offer a range of internet connections which are centrally managed by them ranging from 1-10mbit.
 
Anypoop, back onto subject of what you want to do. If you want to do it right, buy a server. Dell do good ones for next to nothing, couple of hundred gig for storage, purchased with a win2k8 lic and 40 cals, sorted. Then do some reading about AD and GPO. Then get the school to buy a 1mbit connex with the LEA and you're made.

This isn't the 90s, you cannot have a internet connection provided by yourself, it's just irresponsible these days to not have some kind of logging\firewall\filtering on it, especially in a school.
 
In answer to "YOUR" Question,

A router - A DHCP Server and Firewall, Get a better one for load balancing.
A Switch - Connect all PC's together using and IP assigned from the Router via DHCP.
Security - Schools have Free access to the WebSense Proxy set out by the LEA.
 
thnaks to all of you for their kind words and i think i better be going to LEA.....its not a state school but a private, but it is also accedrated with some local authorities....so i have to keep that in mind aswell.....
 
paininlife said:
thnaks to all of you for their kind words and i think i better be going to LEA.....its not a state school but a private, but it is also accedrated with some local authorities....so i have to keep that in mind aswell.....
Click to expand...

Good luck with getting help from the LEA when its a private school!
 
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